1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a cooking device such as a microwave oven for heating an object.
2. Description of Related Art
Cooking devices are divided into one for home use, which is located at a domestic kitchen to be used by family members, and one for business use, which is located at a kitchen in a hotel, a restaurant, a fast-food eatery or the like to be used by an employee or the like for serving a meal to a customer or the like. While one cooking device is located for home use since the cooking device is used only several times a day, generally a plurality of cooking devices are located for business use so as to immediately deal with demand for heat cooking since the cooking devices are used frequently during business hours. In this regard, the cooking devices are generally stacked in order to save limited space in a kitchen and to shorten a distance of horizontal motion which is an operation by a cooking employee and does not contribute directly to heat cooking.
Moreover, a cooking device comprises: a cooking device body having a heating chamber for heating an object and electromagnetic generating means for generating cooking heat in said heating chamber; an exhaust duct, which is disposed above the heating chamber, for discharging air in said heating chamber from an exhaust port to the outside; and a fan for supplying external air to the heating chamber, and is constructed in such a manner that air supplied to the heating chamber by driving the fan is distributed through the exhaust duct and discharged from the exhaust port to the outside (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H6-185736 (1994), for example).
In a cooking device having such a structure, electromagnetic wave generated by the electromagnetic generating means is supplied to the heating chamber by electromagnetic supplying means so as to heat an object housed in the heating chamber, air supplied by driving the fan is supplied to the heating chamber, and air including hot air sometimes up to and rarely exceeding the boiling point and steam generated when the object is heated is distributed through the exhaust duct and discharged from the exhaust port to the outside. Accordingly, regarding a cooking device for business use to be used frequently during business hours, the amount of rise in temperature due to heat generation in a heating chamber and the amount of generation of steam are dramatically large and the cooking device is cooled and dried only on a nonbusiness day or, in all-night restaurant or the like, the cooking device can possibly keep operating from the point of installation to a kitchen for use to removal and disposal.
In view of even one cooking device, such a high operating ratio is expected to cause a problem. When cooking devices are stacked as described above, the amount of heat generation and the density of generated steam increase several times.
As described above, a cooking device for business use has a challenge different from that of a cooking device for home use having similar functions.